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Perfect running mate for Hillary Clinton could be found right here in Washington
May 5, 2016, 6:57 AM | Updated: 6:26 pm
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke rides on the Mass Transit Railway train in Hong Kong Monday, May 17, 2010. U.S. leaders want China's clean energy boom to drive technology exports and are sending a sales mission to Beijing this week. But Beijing wants to create its own suppliers of wind, solar and other equipment and is limiting access to its market, setting up a new trade clash with Washington and Europe.
It’s not often that a Conservative icon would recommend a running mate for a Democrat who could help them become president of the United States. But that’s exactly what syndicated talk show host Michael Medved did.
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Medved, who doesn’t support the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, suggested Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton considers a running mate with Washington ties.
“She should pick someone who has a good reputation for being a non-partisan leader and the perfect candidate is from right here at home. His name is Gary Locke. If she picked Gary Locke as her running mate, she would almost for sure be elected,” Medved told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don.
“He’s been secretary of commerce, he was ambassador to China, he has experience in local government — he was pretty good as King County executive. He had two terms as governor and was triumphantly re-elected,” he said. “Gary Locke is a mainstream Democrat — not to the right, not to the left — who I think would be acceptable to a broad number of Americans.”
Medved said that Locke could help win over middle-ground voters and others on the fence who might vote more right than left.
Locke has an extensive history in Washington politics, as well as on the national and international level. He was a member of the Washington state House and was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor from 1997-2005. Despite being popular among Democrats, he did make party officials nervous as he embraced many Republican stances on managing state funds — no new taxes, laying off thousands of state employees and freezing employee pay. Since his time at the state level he has served under President Barack Obama as secretary of commerce and was ambassador to China up until 2014.
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